This time last year, Matt Rickard had just become a first-team footballer at Plymouth Argyle. The Exeter-born 18-year-old is now pursuing his career a long way from home – and is also expanding his educational horizons.

The former Clyst Vale Community College pupil, whom the Pilgrims tempted away from Exeter City's youth scheme in the summer of 2008, was just 17 years old when he made his one and only senior appearance for Argyle.

Rickard was given a 12-minute run-out as a substitute at the end of the Pilgrims' 2-0 npower League One home defeat to Oldham Athletic in January 2011. At the end of last season, the apprentice striker was not offered a professional contract at Home Park, but he eschewed the usual next step for players in his position.

Instead of making the switch to non-League football at Truro City, Tiverton Town or elsewhere, Rickard chose a long-distance move to the United States to pursue both academic and sporting goals.

Rickard enrolled in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan, which is based in Ann Arbor, near Detroit. In his first year with the university's men's soccer team, Michigan Wolverines, he made 12 starts and seven substitutes appearances in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division One Big Ten Conference – the highest level of university sport in the USA's Mid-West. He has three more years to look forward to.

Gordon Bennett, the hugely experienced head of Argyle's youth department, started the ball rolling to send Rickard to Ann Arbor. Rickard told the Western Morning News: "I wasn't offered a professional contract, so I spoke to Gordon Bennett and he informed me of the potential to go to America and play for a team whilst completing a degree for four years. I was then contacted by a member of Michigan soccer staff, and it went from there."

The Devon teenager made the most of his first year in the States with the Wolverines. "The team and staff were great, and I adjusted well," Rickard added. "I'm looking forward to next season."

After a decade as a defender with various Major League Soccer clubs, Craig Waibel also joined the Wolverines last year as assistant coach. When he was asked to assess Rickard's debut year with the team, he told the WMN: "The transition to playing collegiate soccer in America encompasses so much more than just adjusting to the speed and style of play.

"The adjustments that Matt had to make, with new academic standards and demands that he had never encountered before, the cultural changes he experienced by moving to a new country, and the tactical changes that he had to adjust to on the field, all brought out the best in him.

"We feel that he handled his successes and his struggles with pure class," added Waibel, who also explained what the coaching staff expect to see from Rickard this year.

"We would like to see him be a bit stronger and more assertive on the field. His technical ability and tactical awareness are very efficient, but we didn't get to see his true playing personality and creativity on the field due to all of the adjustments that his first five months in Ann Arbor brought him. We expect him to improve at a steady pace," the coach concluded.

When Rickard was asked about his sporting targets at the end of his four years with the Wolverines, he revealed that he has not ruled out staying in the States. "If I do well, maybe MLS draft," he said, referring to the selection process which allows North America's top professional clubs to pick the top talent from the college system at the start of every year.

Rickard is not the only member of Argyle's youth squad last season to try his luck in the States. Plymouth-born goalkeeper Jack Ord made the move to Oklahoma Wesleyan University, where he was one of four English youngsters on their 2011 roster. Nor is the idea of playing college soccer in America a new one for local footballers.

Ryan Trudgian, a Truro lad who made one Football League appearance for Argyle in May 2001, exported his talent to Oklahoma City University and, after graduating, played semi-professional soccer in Missouri for Springfield Demize.

Another former Argyle apprentice, Exeter-born Dan Bulley, played college soccer in Texas and in New York state (and did well enough to represent Great Britain at the World University Games in 2007 and 2009).

After playing club soccer in Michigan for Kalamazoo Outrage, he stayed in Kalamazoo and is now assistant coach of the Western Michigan University Broncos. "I'm enjoying my time in Kalamazoo and am learning a lot under head coach Stuart Riddle [a former New Zealand international]," Bulley told the WMN.